


The Effects of Flowers.

by Pixie_Rose



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love, On Hiatus, Slow Burn, admitting feelings, gardening Neville, sorting out the garden
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 07:38:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13231056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixie_Rose/pseuds/Pixie_Rose
Summary: Hannah has decided it is high time to get her mothers beloved garden in order, but she can't do it alone. Who else to ask but the best person she knows at Hebology - other than her old Head of House. Neville Longbottom arrives for a 2 week holiday from his Auror work and ends up falling in love... with a new carreer and the girl he'd been close with since sixth year... not that anyone knew.How much will his life change in two weeks?





	The Effects of Flowers.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cliophilyra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cliophilyra/gifts).



> This is a Secret Santa exchange fic. 
> 
> Was written after finding a prompt on tumblr. 
> 
> Prompt: Hannah Abbott decided to take up gardening and asks Neville Longbottom for help getting started.
> 
> Hope you enjoy :)

It was a crisp spring morning. Hannah was busy making breakfast for both herself and her father. She glanced out of the window and sighed, because her mother's beloved garden that had always been so colourful and blooming had become so overgrown and unkempt. Oh, she didn't want to know what her mother would say if she could see the garden in this state—it was a total shame. It had been a few years since her mother died, a small loss amongst all those far greater ones happening during the era she and her father chose to ignore. But now she knew she had to do something about it, get it back to the beautiful sight it used to be, honouring her mother's memory.

Trouble with wanting to sort the garden out was that Hannah Abbott hadn’t inherited her mother’s green fingers, or her love of plants and gardening; she was more practical and hence liked plants that had a use rather than ones that were just pretty. However,this garden wasn’t something she could tackle herself, not without ruining it for good—she needed help. Who better to ask than the Herbology Star from her year? 

They had kept in contact over the years, even during that dreadful year when she was pulled out of school after her mother’s death. No one knew they were so close, not cause she was ashamed, just because they were happy without people butting their noses in, she’d gone through Hogwarts with male friends, she had no qualms about that. It was different with Neville, they were closer somehow, he was there for her and she could open up to him easily. The more time that passed the closer they got-she knew to anyone else they would tell them to just get together, but she wasn’t wholly sure that it was what she wanted. She sat down to pen a letter to him, it had been a while since their last contact. Nowadays, he worked as an Auror, specialising in cases involving magical plants, since he is a Herbology star. Yet, she knew from his letters that he didn't really enjoy it—the job had changed him, and she missed the old, happier Neville in his words, the one she had come to know and love, the one that still made her smile whenever she thought about him. She secretly hoped that asking him for help in her garden project might bring some of the old Neville back.She missed him, especially the happy Neville she had grown to know and love. She secretly hoped that in asking him to help that Neville would return. 

 

Two weeks later, after he had wangled himself some time off, Neville arrived at her doorstep.

“Hey,” he greeted her with a nervous smile as she opened the door. “I’ve come to rescue your poor garden.” 

“Hi, Nevvie!” She smiled broadly as she threw her arms around him. “Long time no see.” Slightly embarrassed about her surprise hug, Hannah let go of him again, only to grab his hand and pull him inside, straight to the kitchen. There, she put the kettle on the stove. “Want a cuppa?” She called. 

“Yes, please,” Neville said, sounding dumbfounded at what had just happened at the door; he stayed in the door to the kitchen as she let go of him to fill the kettle with water, his bag still in hand, and even the door still open. 

Hannah turned as she placed the kettle on the stove, still smiling broadly. “Oh, don't just stand there... Just take your coat off and drop the bag in the corridor."

 

"The door is still open..." But Neville did as she requested before joining her at the kitchen table. "You remember how I take my tea?"

“Of course.” She raised her eyebrows with a smirk-as if she would ever forget  _ anything _ about him. “How have you been?”

“Good,” he shrugged, his voice not convincing her though. “You?”

“Okay, busy at the pub and keeping an eye on Dad.”  She sighed, both were full-time jobs neither of which had ever been on the cards when she was still in school. Shaking those thoughts from her head she took a closer look at Neville and frowned. “Are you eating properly?” 

“Yeah, why?”

“You look like you’ve lost weight.” 

“It's the job,” he said, like it was obvious. “But you’re one to talk.” 

She nodded, silently vowing to feed him up while he was here to make sure. “Okay.” 

As they sat at the old wooden table which had been around long before Hannah was born, Neville was taking in everything around him.

 

It looked like any ordinary home, a lot like his childhood home with his grandmother. With one difference—this house oozed love. he couldn't put his finger on how, but it did; it was clear that this is, or at least had been, a happy and loving home. 

“So, just how bad is this garden?” Neville asked, knowing that they needed to get on as Hannah had a shift in the pub to get to later on. 

“Why not look for yourself?” She nodded to the window above the sink. 

He rose to his feet to go over to the windows over the sink, his mug still in his hand. No sooner had he looked outside that he let out a surprised whistle. “When you said it would be a hard job, I never expected it to be this bad, Han.” He looked at her over his shoulder before he drained his mug into the sink; he put in on the counter before turning around. “We best make a start. I only have a fortnight to do this!” 

 

“Do we have to?” Hannah whined. The fact it was outside and cold was half the reason she had always hated gardening; she preferred her warmth, but she knew it was way past time that this needed sorting. “Give me five minutes to go put something warmer on, and I’ll join you.”

“I’ll wait for you.” Neville smiled. “You asked me to  _ help _ not do it for you, after all. You aren’t getting out of it that easy, Missy.” He heavily plonked himself back down in a chair,but missed it by an inch and so ended up on the floor. He waved Hannah off as she offered to help him up. "Go, change. I'll be fine."

 

Neville knew Hannah needed more than five minutes to get ready, so he waited for her in the corridor. In the end, he waited a whole fifteen minutes before they could finally head outside.

 

Once outside, he finally inspected the state of the garden with a more professional eye—it was even worse than expected after that first glimpse through the kitchen window. They had fourteen days to bring it back to shape, and it was going to be hard work throughout; clearing it out would already take the best part of the next three days...

“So where do we need to start?” Hannah asked, sounding unsure as she huddled further into her warm layers of clothing. .

Neville let out a small laugh as he looked over to her again, he couldn’t help it. There was no way she would be of any use wrapped up in all those layers; anyone would think she was heading to the arctic, not outside to do a bit of garden clearing. “You know you’re going to need to move easily… right?” 

“Ugh, I know. Let me warm up first though?” 

“Okay, you will do when we start clearing this lot, though.” 

 

Half an hour later, Hannah was swelteringly warm in her thick winter coat. “Okay, I concede.” she said as she removed it, “you were right.” She socked him on the arm, laughing briefly to cover her embarrassment. 

“Can…” Neville looked up from where he was cutting down some of the rather overgrown weeds, a smirk curling up his lips. “Can you repeat that?” 

“Which bit?”

“The last bit.” He tried to avoid gloating, even though it was tempting—it was rare enough that Hannah ever admitted that someone else was right.

“What, that you were right?” 

“Yeah, are you saying  _ you _ were wrong?” 

“Uh...” Hannah fidgeted uncomfortably. “I guess.” 

“Ha!” Neville exclaimed, dropping his tools and picking her up. “There is a first time for everything.” 

She swatted her hands against his arms in a futile attempt. “Let me down!” 

He gently returned her to her feet, even though he was reluctant to remove his arms from her waist because it was simply too nice to hold her this close.

“Shouldn’t we be…?” She pointed around, leaning into his touch; she seemed to enjoy their proximity just as much as he did. Yet there was still a lot do for today.

Neville shook his head, momentarily lost to the comfortable moment between them. But seconds later, his brain caught up with her words, and so he finally let go of her. "Uh, yeah. Sorry about that." With red cheeks, he returned to the patch of weed he had been working on, yet he kept looking over to her as often as he could without getting caught.

“Nothing to be sorry for.” She smiled as she scooped up his discarded weeds into sacks to be disposed of later. 

 

A few hours later, Hannah was tired and starving. “Fancy getting some lunch?” she asked. “Late lunch,” she added after looking at her watch. “We need to keep our strength up.”

“Yeah.” Neville nodded, his stomach rumbling rather loudly at the thought of food. He downed tools to follow her inside. 

“We’re getting on better than I thought we would,” Neville said, as he sat down in one of the empty kitchen chairs. 

“What do you mean?” Hannah was confused; they had always got on well, or they had in the latter part of their time at school. 

“Out there.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder. “In the garden.” 

“Oh right.” She smiled. “Yeah.” She started opening cupboards. “What do you fancy for lunch then?” 

“Uh,” Neville blanched, “A sandwich will do.” 

“How about jam sandwiches then? I have some strawberry jam in the fridge.” 

“Sounds perfect.” Neville smiled. Strawberry was his favourite jam after all. 

As they are they talked about general things they'd been up to, they'd slacked off keeping in touch lately. Hannah told him how she's still working with Tom in the leaky cauldron with no clue what she really wanted to be doing and that she was enjoying working in the bar, seeing and talking to people and hearing their stories and giving them advice. Neville told her how he was still uncertain if being an Auror was really for him. 

They then headed back out to the garden and spent the afternoon finishing clearing the garden. “Why don't we just use magic to clear it?” Hannah asked as she was sat on an upturned bucket taking a breather. “It'd be far quicker.” She smiled, less messy too, which is more why she suggested it. 

Neville let out an exasperated sigh, he'd forgotten how clueless she was when it came to plants. “Because,” he turned to look her in the eye, “you could remove some healthy and beautiful plants that way. When clearing it manually if you see something that isn't just a weed or unwanted you can salvage it.” 

Hannah nodded, not that she understood. She couldn't imagine that they'd find anything worth salvaging, not when the garden had got to this state. “We better carry on then.” They didn't have long till she needed to cook dinner before heading out to work. 

 

A few hours later, three-quarters of the garden had been cleared. It made both of them happy. Despite her reservations Hannah was beyond happy to see her mother's beloved rose bushes still alive and, according to Neville, surviving. Her mother had always loved her roses, among other flowers and plants that Hannah had no memory of their names. They packed away tools and with a wave of his wand the garden waste disappeared. They trudged into the house, removing their now muddy shoes at the door outside. 

“I never knew gardening was so tiring.” Hannah said as she yawned. 

Neville scoffed, “that wasn't gardening Hannah,” he smiled at her as he helped himself to making tea, making her a coffee at the same time. “That was also nothing compared to actually gardening.” 

“You mean it gets worse?” She gasped, narrowing her eyes at him hoping he was pulling her leg. 

“Uh huh,” he nodded, trying to keep a straight face at her reaction. “Once you've got the hang of it you'll be okay though.” He patted her shoulder as he placed a steaming mug of coffee just to her liking in front of her. “Here, drink this. You look like you need it.” 

She just nodded, knowing he didn't mean anything nasty by it. “So what do you want for tea?”

“Oh don't worry about me I'll sort something out.” He smiled at her. He didn't want to give her someone else to worry about. “Just sort yours and your dad's out.”


End file.
